Sony Walkman W Series challenge

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A nice man called Huw emailed me and asked me if I wanted a challenge.   I pondered this briefly and said yes please, I like challenges.  He also asked me if I wanted a free Sony Walkman W Series mp3 player.  I also pondered this briefly and said yes please nice man, BRING ON THE FREEBIES.

A parcel turns up for me at work and I eagerly open it and hmm, it’s a nasty plum and gold colour, but this isn’t the nice man’s fault as I didn’t specify a colour and so he either thought I seemed like a plum and gold kind of girl, or it was the first box that came to hand and he just shoved it in the envelope without giving colour choice a second thought.   Methinks the latter. Sony Walkman Series W

I give it a greater inspection when I get home and it’s nice and light but as it’s wireless and the mp3 player is in the headphones, it looks like one of those bluetooth mobile telephone things, the things that make you look like a dork and as there’s two earpieces on the Walkman, I’m going to look like a double-dork.  Ouch.

The next morning I get up bright and early and I don’t mean a I’ve been up drinking and watching Sex and the City all night 10am bright and early, I mean a what the fuck am I doing up at 6am on a Saturday morning kind of bright and early and I take the Walkman upstairs to put some music on it, as my challenge is to compile a playlist that will improve my performance.  I was asked ages ago by Phil to compile a playlist and share it with the internet people, but I sort of accidentally didn’t get round to doing it.  The absence of any freebies being offered was purely coincidental.

Sony Walkman W SeriesThe Walkman comes with a cute little docking station and the headphones magnetically clip together with a satisfying click.  This isn’t purely aesthetic, unclipping them turns the Walkman on.  According to the instructions the status lamp should start blinking but I can’t see a status lamp, blinking or otherwise, so I reconsult the instructions and it has a handy picture for idiots like me that literally points you in the right direction with an arrow pointing at the lamp but it’s still not doing anything and so I read the instructions again and one of the first things it says is “when you use the player for the first time … the player may take some minutes to be recognised by the computer”.  In other words, be patient.

So while I’m being patient I have another look at the instructions as I’m sure I saw on Sony Walkman W Seriesthere somewhere that it can be used with iTunes.  Yippee.  That’ll save me having to a) think of what to put on the Walkman; and b) finding the tracks hidden in the depths of my hard drive.  But I can’t find the bit that says I can use it with iTunes and so I try to use Windows Media Player but give up after a while as it’s not happening and I look at the instructions again and yippee, find the bit about  iTunes and I need to install the Walkman’s Content Transfer and so I try to do this but it says the installer can’t be installed and so I’m going to have to drag and drop and I go through my iTunes folder to try and choose some music and I’m wondering why the fuck I’ve got 18 Metallica albums and unsurprisingly don’t choose any tracks from any of them and I eventually choose some tracks to take me round my planned 30 minutes/3 miles marshes run.

I set Cedric for 30 minutes/3 miles and cheat by eating some jelly beans to power me through it and I get outside and it’s very windy and I think the dorky headphones are going to come off but they stay nicely in my ears and they’re comfy and the sound quality is great but I’m not sure my playlist is going to improve my performance and first up is Inbetweener by Sleeper that I chose because ages ago I had an idea to write a chick lit novel called Inbetweener even though a) I haven’t read many (if any) chick lit books; and b) don’t know how to write one but Sleeper is always good to listen to and next up is  Only Living Boy in New Cross by Carter which I chose because I was supposed to see a band in New Cross yesterday, but didn’t due to having to clean the house in preparation for the letting agent today and which turns out to be good running music, although as I get to the bridge Cedric catches up so I must run faster and next is Cardiacs with In a City Lining, chosen because I spent yesterday updating my Facebook status with lines from it.  This has to be the most impossible music in the world to run to, as they refuse to keep to the same time signature for more than 20 seconds at a time and it’s all stop/start but this is partly what makes them the best band in the world ever.  The other part is simply that Tim Smith is a genius.

Next up is Graham Coxon with You & I that I remembered kept me on the treadmill once longer than I had planned and so anything that can keep me on a treadmill must be good.  And it’s nothing to do with the fact that he’s got that geek chic thing going on.

Just Say Yes by the Cure is a song that makes me happy.  I should have played this last night when I was having a major strop because I had to do the hoovering and tidying  instead of sitting on the sofa drinking wine and eating chocolate which is what I should have been doing on a Friday night (or being in New Cross watching a band, if you’ve been paying attention).

More Cardiacs, this time Joining the Plankton, which is my most favourite song in the world ever and the song I want played at my funeral.  I’ll probably have more than one song but I haven’t thought of any others yet.

Hole start singing Miss World.  I really like this song but I’ve never run to it before and I don’t think I will again as it sounds quite depressing.  Still, never mind because next is My Delirium by Ladyhawke and this is more like it, up-beat and dancey and just right to give me the final push for the last bit of the run which my Garmin tells me I have 21 seconds left to do and when I finish, I’ve beaten Cedric.

So, challenge completed.  Not really songs chosen to give me a push but songs chosen for various reasons, none of which running related.  Don’t tell the nice man, he might ask for the Walkman back.

Stats:
Distance: 3.04 miles
Time: 30:02
Pace: 9:52 m/m
Calories: 298
Up bright and earlies: 1
New MP3 players: 1
Music:
Sleeper – Inbetweener
Carter – Only Living Boy in New Cross
Cardiacs – In a City Lining
Graham Coxon – You & I
Cure – Just Say Yes
Cardiacs – Joining the Plankton
Hole – Miss World
Ladyhawke – My Delirium

Reading Half Marathon non-race report

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I was home off work with a mystery illness on Friday and wasn’t feeling much better on Saturday, so decided not to run on Sunday.  I had also decided to stay in bed and get the train later and meet up with the others (More To Life Than Weight, The Red Bucket, I Run Because I Love Food and Tracy) but Shaun begged and pleaded with me and put on his little disappointed face until I relented and said ok then, as I was up already, even though it was only 6am (5am in real life, with the clocks going forward) and I was ill and should be in bed and so at about 6:45am we go out into the freezing cold and drive to Reading and we get to Reading at 8:30 and I’m thinking the only time I’ve ever seen Reading at 8:30am is at the festival when I’ve still been up taking acid and drinking cider and we walk up to the stadium and I’m surprised at how small football pitches are and we go to the start line and although the little foldy out Reading Half Marathon information thing clearly states no urinating in Green Park, the path is lined with men pissing although there are plenty of portaloos and Shaun finds his spot with the other blue runners and the race starts and I decide to wait and see if I can see Leighsa and Tracy pass me before going back to the stadium and two people in horse costume go past and then a man decides to piss about three feet away from me and he’s so close I can even hear it and I think you dirty peasant and I move away and I’m thinking I must have missed Leighsa and Tracy as it’s been ages and if I hear the man on the tannoy say one more time that the bad news is you’re not even at the start line yet I’m going to take his microphone and shove it somewhere painful and then Leighsa and Tracy come over and make pitying noises because I’m not running and Leighsa goes to the toilet  in a portaloo and doesn’t piss on the path like all the men have and when she comes back she sees the sweeper van and says oh, we’d better run and so off they run and I go back to the stadium and get a seat directly in front of where the runners will come in and I think hmm, I had only planned to watch the winner come in then go and get a cup of tea or something and come back for Shaun’s intended 1:48 time but if I leave, I’m going to lose my seat and a woman sits next to me and we start chatting and she says she’s called Coral and she’s come up from Dorset to support her step-daughter who’s running and she says she’s never seen anything like this before and the winner comes in at 1:02 and what a surprise, it’s a Kenyan, and I stay and watch more runners come in and think watching fit men’s not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning really and the woman on the other side of me stands up and starts shouting Shaun! Shaun! and I think eh? he can’t be in yet and then I think oh, it’s probably someone else called Shaun, duh, and Coral says I think someone called Shaun has just finished and I say my boyfriend’s called Shaun, I got a bit confused and her Shaun’s faster than my Shaun and she says ah, but your Shaun will be faster than lots of other Shauns and I say yes, that’s true and I think what a sweet thing to say and at 1:52 clock time Shaun finishes and I say bye to Coral and go off to the meeting point to meet Shaun and I’m standing there for ages and freezing and shivering and he eventually limps over and we walk back very slowly to the car park and he gets changed and we go into town and go to  Superdrug for some painkillers and some Cold Heat or whatever it’s called and then we go to a strange pub which is covered in beer mats and doesn’t allow people to talk on their mobiles and has an outside toilet and then we go to the restaurant to meet up with the others and I get a pizza which surprises no one and it’s just as well I didn’t run as they all came in with great times and I would probably be finishing around now.

Countdown to Reading Half Marathon

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My Reading Half Marathon race pack came yesterday, the first four digits of my number being the phone number of the house I  was born in, grew up in and lived in until I was 19 when I escaped the confines of parental control and aggressive alcoholics and gained my independence by living in a 6′ x 10′ room in Walthamstow.  Phone numbers aside, my race number confuses me as it has no colour on it  to signify my starting place and I’m sure Shaun said his was blue and he rings me and I say I’m confused, my number has no colour, unless there’s a white start? and he looks at the race info and says yes, there’s a white start, it’s 2:25+ and I say what? I wouldn’t have put my time down as that slow, have they been reading my blog and put me in the appropriate place with all the other slackers? and this morning I wake up to the aroma of freshly baked Sainsbury’s Cheese & Onion packet bread mix and the sun is out and I want to get out early as I have an urge to make some jewellery and I think I’d better have some jelly beans to power me and I have Hawaiian punch flavour and peachy pie flavour and I’m out of the house by 9 and as I get to the marina there’s a boy wearing a purple jumper that looks like a school jumper and then I think maybe it’s navy blue and I decide it’s indigo and I wonder why there’s a schoolboy over the marshes on a Saturday morning and I go over the bridge that’s not shut anymore and is now a not very nice shade of green and yellow and it’s quite windy but not as windy as when I did my 18 mile jelly baby duty cycle ride and  when I get to three miles I think I could turn round and go back the way I came as I haven’t done that before and it’ll be a change and I only want to do six miles today anyway and maybe it will energise me a bit as I’m struggling a bit on this run and feel quite heavy and I turn round but it’s windy so I turn back to carry on going and I think how am I supposed to do another ten miles on top of this next Sunday and I think bollocks and all the training has (not) been done now and whatever I do next week isn’t going to make any difference and I can’t do any running commutes next week anyway as my running commute days of Tuesday and Thursday have been reserved for pizza eating, drinking and seeing bands instead and the days after have been reserved for recovering so it looks like Shaun was right when in his supportive boyfriend way he told the journalist from the Reading Evening Post that I’m going to hate it as I haven’t done any training.

 

Stats:
Distance: 6:35 miles
Time: 1:08:24
Pace: 10:46 m/m
Calories: 549
Race packs: 1
Sainsburys cheese & onion packet bread mixes: 1
Jelly beans: 3
Journalists told that I’m crap at training: 1
Music:
Associates
Nirvana
Joy Division
B52s
Blur
Arctic Monkeys
Power Station
The Killers

Magic beans, angel dust and Ninja Turtles

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I get up at 6am – two and a half hours before I need to leave for work – and have a productive morning, then get to work to be unproductive and, because my boss isn’t in today, I spend the day doing a bit of work, a lot of browsing the internet and no being sworn at.

And because it’s a lovely sunny day, in order to not get too lethargic in the afternoon thus thwarting my plans for a running commute, at lunchtime I go for a walk along the river, a walk cut short when it’s looking very likely that I’m going to get trampled on by the 22,000,030 runners along the Embankment, so I cut my walk short, cross the road and go back to the office to carry on my boss-isn’t-here-so-I’m-going-to-have-a-long-lunch-break thing.

2:45 comes and I’m eyeing up the energy bar on my desk.  Shall I eat it now or wait a bit?  I ponder this for about three seconds and five seconds later the energy bar is no longer on my desk but somewhere inside my digestive tract.  Or on its way there.  Biology was never my thing.

Also in preparation for my run, I’d bought some Gourmet Beans from The Jelly Bean Factory that I’d been eyeing up in WHSmith over the last few weeks, as they proudly state “gelatine free” which means they’re not made of bones and hooves.  Oh no, they only contain shellac which apparently is insect secretion and The Vegetarian Society says to treat it like honey (i.e. leave it up to your conscience whether you want to eat it or not) so if The Vegetarian Society says it’s ok to eat insect wee, then it’s ok with me.  Yum.

At 4:00 I’m bored so I decide to play “guess the jelly bean flavour” (which isn’t just an excuse for gluttony.  As if) and sample some beans and I can’t guess the flavour (I’m also crap at guessing smells; someone was eating Kentucky Fried Chicken in the office the other day and I thought it was fish) but mmmm, they’re very nice and I manage not to eat all of them and at 5:00 I do my boss-isn’t-here-so-I’m-going-to-leave-early thing and then I’m trying to cross the road but a cyclist goes through the red light and I try again and another cyclist goes through the red light and I think OI CYCLISTS, STOP GOING THROUGH THE RED LIGHT AND LET ME CROSS THE ROAD YOU WANKERS and I get to Angel and I get dust in my eye again and I think why do I keep getting dust in my eye when I get to the Angel? and I think ah, it must be angel dust and maybe it’s lucky dust and I go past Foxtons and have a better look through the window at their fridges and I can only see Coke and water and I think maybe I won’t go in there and pretend I can afford a house in Islington then if I’m not going to get any free wine or beer and then I see a trampy bloke pick up half a cigarette off the pavement and I think aah, poor trampy bloke and I go to get a cigarette out of my rucksack to give him then remember I don’t smoke anymore and I run past Hackney Downs station without wimping out and getting on a train and then I’m waiting to cross the road and I see the steep bit and I think I need a jelly bean to help me up the steep bit and I don’t know what flavour it is but it’s very nice indeed and I get up the steep bit and through Murder Mile and I think, do I deserve a jelly bean for getting through Murder Mile without getting murdered? and I decide I do and I recognise it as coconut and think this one’s not so nice and I’m wondering if it’s light enough for me to cut through the marshes and I decide it is and I go to cross the road and the lights are taking ages to change and I think hurry up lights, or it will get dark and I eat more jelly beans while I’m waiting for the lights to change and I go through the marshes and I can see a man on a bench up ahead and he seems to be doing some sort of push up thing and I think why’s he doing that there? and I wonder if I should go back onto the road but I decide to be brave and I go past the stables and I think the horses will save me if anyone tries to murder me, perhaps even Champion the Wonder Horse himself, although he’s probably been dead for about 50 years and I think oh shit, I’ve got to go through the bread factories now, I didn’t think of that and I get to the factories and there’s people working there and I think hooray, maybe I won’t get murdered after all, the bread people can save me, perhaps even Mr Hovis himself if there was ever a Mr Hovis but even if there was, he’s probably been dead longer than Champion the Wonder Horse and I’m wondering who the modern day heroes are and maybe a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle will come and save me but wouldn’t it be a bit embarrassing being saved by a turtle, especially a mutant one? and I decide to save any embarrassment, I just won’t get murdered.

Running stats:
Distance: 5:00 miles
Time: 59:21
Pace: 11:52 m/m
Calories: 435
Productive early part of mornings: 1
Productive later part of mornings: 0
Bosses swearing at me: 0
Energy bars: 1
Cyclists going through red lights: 2
Trampy blokes picking up cigarettes: 1
Jelly bean flavours recognised: 1
Music:
Rollins Band
Jeff Buckley
Foo Fighters
Nirvana

9+18=

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A lot of miles!

No, I didn’t run them all.  I ran – um, I correct myself – I trudged through 9 miles yesterday with my miraculous self-healing knee which was hurting so badly on Friday I was limping all day, but yesterday woke up like I’d dreamt it, not a twinge at all.  What cured it?  The cheese, mushroom and shallots omelette?  The Nutrageous bar?  The Deep Heat and stretchy bandage?  Who knows.  Still, nine miles sort of done.  Hooray.

Then today, Shaun announces he’s going to do 18 miles for his London Marathon training.  He further announces I’m going to accompany him on jelly baby duty on the mountain bike.  Hmm, ok, I think, how hard can it be, all I’ve got to do is sit there and pedal a bit sometimes.  FUCK ME HOW WINDY WAS IT?  It was proper windy.  Windy enough to necessitate the use of capital letters and the word ‘proper’ anyway.  Even windy enough to necessitate the use of the ‘C’ word by Shaun.  Oops, naughty.  And in front of a lady too.  (Yes, that’s me.  Before you ask.)

God, I was glad to get home.  To a cup of tea and some chocolate Hob Nobs and then a massive lunch.  Cooked by me.  Oh yes, I am a domestic goddess and finely tuned athlete rolled into one.  One what, I don’t know.

Running stats:
Distance: 9:05 miles
Time: 1:45:32
Pace: 11:40 m/m
Calories: 840
Cheese, mushroom and shallots omelettes: 1
Nutrageous bars: 1
Miraculously self-healing knees: 1

Cycling stats:
Distance: 17:42 miles (set off before the Garmin got a satellite)
Time: 2:31:08
Pace: 8:41 m/m
Calories: 612 (someone PLEASE tell me cycling burns off more calories than this?)
Use of capital letters: 1
Use of the ‘C’ word: 1
Cups of tea: 1
Chocolate Hob Nobs: 3
Massive lunches: 1
Domestic goddesses and finely tuned athletes rolled into one: 1

Wimp!

6 comments

My boss hasn’t been in the last couple of days and as a result, I  haven’t had much to do and today I have mostly been trying to keep my eyes open and I go for a walk for a couple of miles along the river at lunchtime in the hope that it will energise me but the afternoon is just as bad and I’m falling asleep and I email Shaun and say it’s raining and I can’t keep my eyes open, do I have to run home? and can I eat the energy bar anyway? and he emails back and says yes you do have to run home and if you don’t, then no, you can’t eat the energy bar and I say too late, I’ve eaten it and very nice it was too and it gets to 5 o’clock and I think ok then, I’ll run home and I get changed and get outside and FUCK, IT’S COLD AND WINDY and when did the weather change? and why did no one tell me it got cold again? and where did this wind come from? and I get to Sadlers Wells and my Garmin gets a signal but before I can show the people of Islington my athletic prowess, I’m stopped by a French man who asks me if I know where King’s Cross is and I think hmm, yes, I do know the general direction but not sure how to direct him and I say errrrrrrrrr, yes, but you’ll get lost if I attempt to give you directions and he says ok then and I say sorry and I decide to walk until I get past the Angel and then a big gust of wind blows and it blows something in my eye and I keep blinking and tears are running down my face and I can’t see and I want to rub my eye but I’ll smudge my make up and look like a panda and my eye’s hurting and it eventually gets better as I get to Foxtons which has got to be the coolest estate agent ever, as it has fridges with beer and wine in it and I must remember to go in there one day and pretend I can afford to buy a house in Islington so I can get free beer and wine and I eventually start to run and my legs feel heavy and I’m cold and wet and I get down the end of Essex Road and I’m feeling grumpier than I have been all day and I thought running was supposed to de-stress you and I’m just feeling MONUMENTALLY PISSED OFF and I realise I’ve forgotten to put my alarm on and I think oh well, it’s not like anyone ever gets murdered in Hackney, is it? and I’m still feeling pissed off and I think I can’t be arsed with this, I’m going to get on the train at Hackney Downs and I get to Hackney Downs station and I haven’t got my glasses on and I can’t read the departure board and I don’t know what platform to go to and I squint my eyes and eventually the numbers become a bit clearer and hooray, there’s a train in 3 minutes and I go up to the platform and the people there look at me in a funny way and I think, what? haven’t you ever seen anyone in luminous yellow hi vis running gear before standing on the platform looking a bit cold and soggy? and I think no, they probably haven’t and the train comes and mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, it’s nice and warm in here and 99.9% of the other passengers are wearing black and I wonder if I’m standing out in my luminous yellow hi vis top and I think I probably am but I also think I don’t really care.

Stats:
Far too embarrassing to put on here.  Let’s just say it wasn’t very far or very fast.

Competition results: And the winners are…

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After an overwhelming response to my competition, mainly responded to by woodworm who came from a freeloaders’ forum (Adele was spot on when she commented on how many people come out of the woodwork when there’s something for nothing on offer), I have adjudicated and conferred and all the other important stuff one has to do when judging a competition, and my winners are:

1.  Mr Tom Roper.  For using the word peregrination which I had never heard before and so had to look up and then go and have a long Facebook status conversation about it.

2.  Miss Strumming, Running &  Drinking.  For taking the piss out of me and making Shaun laugh.

3.  Mr Sore Limbs.  Because the huge amount of email, Facebook messages, late night phone calls, bricks through the windows, aeroplanes trailing banners flying over my house, all containing the message GIVE ME THE BOOK is quite frankly getting a bit embarrassing. And I hate to see a grown man cry.

So, well done you three, email me your addresses and I’ll get the books sent out to you.

 

Flood!

2 comments

As last week’s run was powered by half a slice of sun-dried tomato and jalapeno bread which seemed to do the trick, this morning, as I’ve told myself I’m doing eight miles today, I thought I’d better eat a whole slice of this morning’s freshly baked sun-dried tomato, jalapeno and pumpkin seed bread although I’m not really hungry and then I procrastinate for an hour and 45 minutes and I’m eventually out the door at 9:30 and the footpath is still closed and I’m wondering if eating bread before running is a good idea and I’m feeling bloated and I think I’ve got a carb belly, unlike Leighsa who gets a carb face (no, I haven’t a clue what she’s on about either) and I pull my tights up to hold my belly in and I’m hoping I don’t get camel toe instead as I’m hardly a picture of sartorial running elegance at the best of times and before I left I was reading Adele’s blog and she mentioned diggers in the river and I was thinking what is she on about? is she running in some parallel marshes universe? but when I get to the river I see there is indeed a digger in the water and as I get round the corner there are two more diggers in the water and I get round the marshes and there’s far more footballers playing than usual and they even have spectators today and I wonder why and as I’m approaching the bridge that brings me back to the stables there’s a lake on the path and I think that’s weird, there’s not usually water here and I wonder how deep it is and there’s no way around it but my feet are hot and I think it will cool them down so I go through the water and it is deep and very cold and it has cooled my feet down but now they’re all squelchy and as I get to the bridge I see it’s flooded and there’s water pouring down into it and so I go up to the road instead and there’s a girl standing in the road and I think don’t stand in the middle of Lea Bridge Road, it’s busy,  you’ll get run over and then I realise there’s no cars and I wonder where all the cars are and I look to my left and the road’s cut off and and so I go over to be nosy investigate and there’s a burst pipe and the road’s flooded and I wonder how Shaun’s going to get to mine and I cross the road and go back into the marshes and go out the way I came in and I think bollocks, I’m going to have to do two laps of the park and I hate doing laps of the park and I get to the park and I carry on down the road and go round the block and then I go into the park for the last half a mile and there’s loads of people with babies and buggies in there and I knew there was a reason why I don’t like going into the park and for some reason it seems to be all men with buggies and I’m wondering if it’s National Single Dad Day today or something and I go past a man with a buggy and he smiles at me and I think don’t be getting any ideas mate, I’m not being a replacement mum for your kid and babies aren’t a stop and talk and gurgle and coo or whatever thing for me, they’re a run very fast in the opposite direction thing and I get home after my eight miles and remember that someone from Nike+ spammed me and didn’t offer me any freebies, bah, but asked me to link to this Facebook page and I’m not really sure what it is, some Men v Women thing, so go and have a look.

Stats:
Distance: 8.18 miles
Time: 1:31:41
Pace: 11:13 m/m
Calories: 717
Loaves of sun-dried tomato, jalapeno and pumpkin seed bread: 1
Diggers: 3
Floods: 1
Men with babies: loads
Links to some Nike+ Men v Women thing: 1
Music:
Cardiacs
Ladyhawke
MGMT
Polyphonic Spree
Maximo Park
Faith No More
Pulp
Hole
Black Wire

Free Alcohol v Running Commute

3 comments

I originally RSVP’d yes to the monthly London Blogger’s Meet Up, but spurred on by my successful run on Saturday, I decide to try and salvage something in the run up to the Reading Half and do some eleventh hour (ahem) proper training and so when Tracey emails me and says are you coming to the Blogger’s Meet Up to get free alcohol, I say no, I’m going to run home instead and it takes me until I get to the Angel – a mile away from the office – to get a signal on my Garmin (because, like I said before, no Garmin, no running) and I start running down Upper Street and go past Hamburger Union where I went last week before I went to see the Secret Machines and no one should ever eat in there because a) the burgers are crap: b) the chips are crap; and c) the service is crap and I had a nicer Burger King Veggie Whopper Meal in a service station somewhere in between Wales and home (yeah, my geography is shit) last year and after 2.05 miles, my left knee starts to hurt and I’m wondering if maybe I should get on the train at Hackney Downs which I’m nearly at but it starts to ease off and I’m thinking knee, if you’re going to hurt, hurt now so I can get on the train but it stays not hurting and then at 2.90 miles, my right foot starts to hurt and I think I SAID IF YOU WERE GOING TO HURT, THEN HURT BEFORE I’M AT THE STATION because it’s no good being stuck after the station because I’ve no way of getting home as I’ve only got an overground ticket and there’s no money on my Oyster card and I only have my credit card on me and I don’t think buses take credit cards and the buses don’t go to my house anyway but then my foot stops hurting and I get home and because it’s Shrove Tuesday, I make a big Dutch pancake and top it with mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes and cheese and you can see a picture here and it was really really nice and then I do my washing and find out my washing machine’s broken and then I’m really really pissed off and Shaun rings and says how are you? and I say my washing machine’s broken and he says what are you going to do about that and I say you’re going to fix it and he says oh.

Stats:
Distance: 5.51 miles
Time: 1:09:00
Pace: 12:31 m/m
Calories: 450
Free alcohol: 0
Running commute: 1
Hurting left knees: 1
Hurting right feet: 1
Pancakes: 1
Washing machines that work: 0
Music:
Cardiacs
The Killers
Ladyhawke
MGMT
Polyphonic Spree
Libertines
David Bowie
Faith No More

Powered by sun-dried tomato and jalapeno bread

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This morning’s aroma (apart from the cat litter tray) was sun-dried tomato and jalapeno bread and I start to eat it while I’m emptying the dishwasher and making tea and I think stop eating bread, I don’t usually eat before a run and I decide to call it fuelling instead of gluttony and it looks bright and sunny today and I wonder how far I should run and I decide to attempt six miles and think ha ha ha ha ha, yeah, right, I don’t think I’ve run more than four miles in the whole of my “training” and the Reading Half‘s in five weeks and once again I think oops and I go to put my Garmin outside and it says it’s only got 11 hours charge on it and it usually has 13 and I think will I be out running for more than 11 hours? and I think probably not and I tell the cat to go inside and she goes inside and hisses at me and I think why are you hissing at me? you usually save that kind of behaviour for Shaun and Faith No More start singing From Out of Nowhere and I think oh no, I don’t like to leave a song unfinished, but if I wait until the song’s finished, my Garmin will lose its signal and so I cut Faith No More off in their prime and go outside and I get to the marina and there’s a sign that says footpath closed and I wonder if the sign’s lying and it’s really closed and I think anyway, I don’t want the footpath, I want the footbridge and I go up to the bridge and it is shut and I think they need to change their sign and I turn round and go back and then there’s a sign that says footbridge closed and I think that’s a stupid place to put it, after people have already been up to the bridge and found it closed and so I go the other way and a man runs past me with a small dog and he says hello and I get overtaken on the bridge before the Sex Change Pub but I don’t mind being overtaken, after all I’m used to it and then there’s a dog with three legs rolling around and looking very happy  and there’s a man coming down the path with a hoody and gloves and I think HOW SCARY DO YOU LOOK? and on the corner is a man standing by a tree and I wonder why he’s standing by a tree and I decide he’s just waiting for people to play football with and in the car park is a group of people and I wonder why they’re hanging around in the car park and I decide they are also just waiting for people to play football with and I turn right instead of left this time as last time I turned left it was the wrong way and I got lost in the forest like The Cure although I’m not sure if they were singing about Hackney Marshes and then a cyclist starts to slow down and I think please don’t stop and he stops and I think eek but then I see he’s just waiting for his dog and I think phew and two old men walk past me and they say hello and I wonder why I’m not scared of old men or cyclists or runners or people walking dogs  or people walking with other people but if I see any men under the age of 50 on their own over the marshes I have a heart attack and I go past the stables and it smells and it reminds me I’ve got to empty the litter tray and then I get home and somehow I’ve managed to do nearly 6.5 miles.  Yay for me.

 

Splits
 Splits 21 February 2009

 

Stats:
Distance: 6.47 miles
Time: 1:11:26
Pace: 11:03 m/m
Calories: 555
Loaves of sun-dried tomato and jalapeno bread: 1
Cats hissing: 1
Runners overtaking me on bridges: 1
Dogs with three legs: 1
Scary looking men with hoody and gloves: 1
Men standing by trees: 1
Groups in the car park: 1
Cyclists stopping to wait for their dog: 1
Smelly stables: 1
Smelly cat litter trays: 1
Music:
Cardiacs
The Killers
Ladyhawke
MGMT
Polyphonic Spree
Libertines

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